The soulslike genre is hardly an unexplored frontier these days. While I generally detest using the “like” nomenclature, it’s hard to deny that FromSoftware made some very specific tweaks to the action-RPG genre that keep getting lifted wholesale. I was recently perturbed by Lies Of P essentially just lifting Bloodborne, sprinkling some variations from other Souls games, and then just calling it a day. I have trouble applauding someone for just copying the successes of another company wholesale.
But I’m not against the soulslike genre, in general. A developer just needs to put their own twist on things. Take Another Crab’s Treasure, for example. There is a lot of Souls DNA mixed in here. The fundamental systems boil down to essentially the same place. But simply by mashing it with the polluted ocean floor and fascinating creatures that are hermit crabs, the developers at Aggro Crab have created something that is uniquely theirs.
You’ve got crabs
I actually keep land hermit crabs as pets. One of them I’ve had for 13 years. They’re interesting little crustaceans, having their own small personalities and their own shell preferences. Ugly butts, though. You just usually don’t see them.
Another Crab’s Treasure stars saltwater hermit crab, Kril, as they explore the polluted ocean depths. The demo doesn’t have much in the way of narrative, but I’m reading the press release, and he’s apparently trying to find treasure so he can buy back his repossessed shell. That’s fantastic.
The big twist here is that Kril can jump into various trash to wear as a shell. Each piece of garbage has its own “Umami Ability” that can be used in combat. Not only that, the shells have different durability, and you’ll be swapping them out all the time as they break, sometimes even during boss battles. Part of the game’s fun is just trying out different shells and watching Kril wear everything from a pop can to an ice cream cone.
Trials of trash
The differences in combat between Another Crab’s Treasure and any of the Souls games threw me off at first. Learning when and how to use Umami Abilities and the best strategies for defense isn’t entirely straightforward, so I had some difficulty at first. Even after I began to get the hang of things, I was afraid of using my shell, knowing that relying too much on it would result in it breaking.
It doesn’t help that the demo has two speeds: a tutorial and a level later in the game. I feel like if I got dropped earlier on the difficulty curve, I would have had things internalized before I had to deal with archers and samurai.
A lot has been simplified from its influences. There are only four very straightforward stats to worry about, and while you can do some fancy things with your grappling hook, there’s no critical hit from hitting an enemy in the butt. This makes the whole game feel a lot faster and almost akin to an N64 platformer.
Speaking of which, there’s platforming. There’s your typical way of avoiding hazards by jumping on small environmental items, but then there are also nets to climb and hooks to shot. Kril’s pretty spry for someone carrying garbage on their back.
For the umami
On the other hand, there are a lot of loose threads in the demo. I get the feeling that it’s still relatively early in the development of Another Crab’s Treasure, as the developer expects to ship it in 2024. As such, there are some issues with the feel of the game and just the general flow of combat. The camera was particularly troublesome. It would have difficulty seeing around objects and would sometimes clip right through the ground in a very unhelpful way. The lock-on helps in combat, but it’s too gluey at times and unreliable at others.
However, a lot of the issues I had can be evened out with the polishing brush. I’d be more concerned if the game was out, say, next week. As it stands, there’s plenty of time to tighten up the screws.
As it stands, I’m just enamored by the concept. The bright visuals that depict a garbage-strewn wasteland and the twisting of familiar concepts just make for a really fun take on the genre. There’s a lot of creativity and personality on display, which makes Another Crab’s Treasure one to watch.
If you want to try out the demo for Another Crab’s Treasure yourself, you can find it right here as part of Steam Next Fest.
